Value 6- Week 1 Fasting
Discipleship in our culture is
particularly difficult. Ours is a
culture of self-indulgence. We have
grown accustomed to having what we want, when we want it. We expect everything to operate 24/7 for our
convenience so we don’t have to wait for anything. As a culture that thrives on consumer credit,
we have been taught that we can have anything we want, even if we can’t afford
it. Our tendency toward self-indulgence
has fed a society rampant with addiction, sexual immorality, broken
relationships, and crippling debt. However,
it is obviously unfair to blame this solely on our environment; we after all
are the culture. This has always been
the human condition. Genesis begins with
a story humanity’s struggle with self-indulgence, for even when Adam and Eve
had everything they needed for a full life, they couldn’t resist the only thing
denied them.
Because of our tendency toward self-indulgence, Jesus taught that
self-denial was a fundamental characteristic of discipleship. To follow Jesus inevitably would mean to learn
deny self for a greater purpose beyond ourselves. To achieve this virtue, disciplines of abstinence
are critical. We’ve already looked as
Sabbath as one of those disciplines.
Another of the disciplines of abstinence is the timeless value of
fasting. Historically it has been the
principle discipline by which self-denial is learned. Richard Foster says fasting is “choosing to
deny ourselves something there is nothing otherwise wrong with in order to
learn to avoid indulgence in sinful or destructive things.” To be effective in discipling us, fasting
must be voluntary, something we choose to do when we don’t have to; it is most
effective when abstaining from something that is normal not destructive; and it
must be for a spiritual purpose (to grow in discipleship). Apparently Jesus assumed fasting would be a
part or the disciple’s life for the said in the Sermon on the Mount, “When you
fast . . . (not if)”.
It seems fasting should be one of
the first disciplines we are taught to practice in a life of discipleship and
yet it has become one rarely taught or practiced and one that requires a
certain maturity. The great cyclist Lance
Armstrong was once asked why cyclist are in their prime in the 30’s as compared
other sports. His reply was, “It takes
years to learn to suffer.” It takes
years of practice to learn self-denial, and fasting is a critical exercise in
the process, a timeless value of the faith for which there is no substitute.
This week choose something from which to fast over this entire month. If your health allows it, begin with
food. We are after all, a culture
addicted to food. Make a commitment to
fast one day a week or one meal a day.
Pay attention to how much your mind and body demand that you indulge
yourself and how much discipline it requires to not yield to the desire.
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